Windows will not assign letters to drives

[teli33]

I have a Toshiba Portege R500-S5002X, running XP Pro version 2002 SP3, 100 GB HD, 18 GB used, 82 GB free, 1GB of RAM, I use IE 8 & Safari as my broswers, no anti virus software being used.

The problem is a while back my flash drives stopped being recognized. Around when this happened I changed some power managmments & am not sure but think I must have done something to cause this to happen. I as always plug in my flash drives(both Lexar & San Disk) & they blink on but XP won't give them a drive letter. Other devices work such as my USB mouse with no issues.

I go into 'Computer Managment' into 'Disk Managment' & it is seeing neither my Flash drives or even my hard drive. In 'My computer' the HD is still there though. I go into 'Device Manager' into 'Disk Drives' & the HD as well as the Flash Driives are recognized there.

I've gone into USB Root Hub Properties & made sure the 'save power' option is unchecked. I have run AD-Ware & that hasn't helped. I have tried to restore to earlier dates & can't. I even made restore disks from this laptop & tried to run those & I get a screen that says "WRONG MACHINE".

I really need a way to run my flash drives on this machine,anyone have any ideas?

 

[OLBY]

i can solve 1 of your problems, download tune up utilities and avast
i hope i helped

 

[OLBY]

hey man,try this site: www.kellys-korner-cp.com\xp_tweaks.htm

 

[raybay]

Adaware is useless... I suggest you not consider it as an important tool for correcting problems.
I would plug a lot of different items into the USB ports... see what comes up, as something important is wrong here.
Please give us more information on the hardware, ages, etc. and where you got your Windows disk... as well as how long it has been running on this machine.

 

[teli33]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies. This is more info about the laptop:

Toshiba Potege R500-S5002X Notebook - PPR50U-035020
Toshiba Portege R500-S5002X Laptop Computer -Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 1.20GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 1GB DDR2 SDRAM, 120GB SATA HDD, DVD SuperMulti, 12.1" WXGA Display, Fingerprint reader, Gigabit NIC, 802.11a/g/n, Bluetooth v2.0

It was a gift from a family member so I got it used. It was used by his company befopre giving it to me & had XP Pro SP3 installed by the company. XP Pro was not a copy, it was an original but I have no way of getting my hands on that disk. I can only estimate that it was about 5 years ago that they had installed it.

I do watch movies on Surfthechannel & may have caught something & I did make a power managment change that I can't undo which may have FUBARed everything.

I have made no hardware or OS modifications since it was given to me. I did try to used an XP Pro disk at my work (an original) the other day in attempts to repair or reinstall over this OS to fix my issue to no avail. It would begin the install & then give me a message about how there was a problem with my HD & it had to stop install before it damaged the system.

I have tried to run a /chkdsk & then it says it will run chkdsk on reboot but when it reboots nothing happens.

Another odd thing is when I try to defrag it says 'Defragmentor could not start'. I have gone into services.msc & made sure things are turned on. A freind mentioned I may be having some kind of managent council failure?

I tried pluging in my RCA MP3 player, it does physically power up the MP3 player & in the bottem task bar it does pop up saying new hardware is there & ready to use but just like the flash drives it is not found in 'My Computer' or in 'Disk Management' but it IS found in 'Device Manager' & like the flash it does say under 'Device usage' 'Use this device (enable)' is on.

My TomTom One recognizes that its attached to the USB but then freezes up when its trying to talk to the comp.

I don't have any things like lil fans or number pads to plug in but suspect they would work as my Logitech mouse has no issues.

I don't want to physically wipe my HD but using my flash drives is very important.

Help! =)

 

[teli33]

Oh my CD drive is still recognized by everything also.

 

[LookinAround]

USB can sure be handy....but can also casue issues in many different ways. Suggest we start in this order:

>> See [post=744411]USB Device Problems? Check for Windows Updates[/post]
>> See [post=752196]How to Check Hardware / Connection Issues with your USB Device[/post]

Then, see [post=727106]How to use the DriveCleanupTool[/post]

But that still doesnt help, you may need to see this guide for detailed debug instructions
>> See [post=720762]Troubleshoot: Windows Won't Recognize Your USB Hard Drive[/post]
>> See [post=720763]Troubleshoot: Windows Won't Recognize Your USB Hard Drive[/post]

Let us know how if goes. Or if any questions along the way
Simply start with See [post=727106]How to use the DriveCleanupTool[/post]